Eurozone Crisis and Social Models: What We Can Learn from Italy and Spain

Writing and researching Southern Europe as a symbiotic area has always presented a challenging task. Historians and political scientists such as Stanley Payne, Edward Malefakis, Giulio Sapelli, and Roberto Aliboni have studied the concept of Southern Europe and its difficult paths to modernity. They have been joined by sociologists and anthropologists who have debated the existence of a Southern European paradigm in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries and the arduous transformation of the region's welfare systems, economic development, education and family structures. These scholarly attempts to understand the specificities of Southern Europe date back to the concerns of Western European Cold War strategists in the 1970s, many of whom were worried about the status quo of the region in the aftermath of the fall of the dictatorships. But this geographical and geopolitical definition of the area did not necessarily follow existing cultural, political and economic patterns. Once the Eurozone crisis hit in the 2000s these questions came back with renewed force but with even less conceptual clarity, as journalists and pundits frequently gestured towards vague notions of what they considered to be ‘Southern Europe’.

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Has Germany “Fallen Out of Love” with Europe? The Eurozone Crisis and the “Normalization” of Germany's European Identity

German Politics & Society ◽

10.3167/gps.2015.330103 ◽

2015 ◽

Vol 33 (1) ◽

pp. 25-41 ◽

Cited By ~ 6

Author(s):

Charlotte Galpin

Keyword(s):

National Identity ◽

Sovereign Debt ◽

Debt Crisis ◽

European Identity ◽

Media Discourse ◽

The European Union ◽

Eurozone Crisis ◽

Northern European ◽

European Crisis ◽

Political Speeches

The European Union has been in its biggest ever crisis since the onset of the Greek sovereign debt crisis in 2010. Beyond the political and economic dimensions, the crisis has also sparked discussions about Germany's European identity. Some scholars have argued that Germany's behavior in the crisis signals a continuation of the process of “normalization” of its European identity toward a stronger articulation of national identity and interests, that it has “fallen out of love” with Europe. This article will seek to reassess these claims, drawing on detailed analysis of political and media discourse in Germany—from political speeches through to both broadsheet and tabloid newspapers. It will argue that the crisis is understood broadly as a European crisis in Germany, where the original values of European integration are at stake. Furthermore, the crisis is debated through the lens of European solidarity, albeit with a particular German flavor of solidarity that draws on the economic tradition of ordoliberalism. Rather than strengthening expressions of national identity, this has resulted in the emergence of a new northern European identity in contrast to Greece or “southern Europe.”

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United in Diversity? Comparing Social Models in Europe and America - Edited by Jens Alber and Neil Gilbert

International Journal of Social Welfare ◽

10.1111/j.1468-2397.2011.00797.x ◽

2011 ◽

Vol 20 (3) ◽

pp. 326-327

Author(s):

Richard Peet

Keyword(s):

Social Models

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